Devastated punter claims he’s missed out on £700,000 after horse disqualification

If you've ever come agonisingly close to a big accumulator win, you'll almost certainly have sympathy for this guy.

Having stuck £1 each way bet on Josies Orders as part of a seven-horse accumulator, Ian Brown (not the one out of The Stone Roses) claims he would have won a whopping £700,000 if his bet, made at March's Cheltenham Festival, had come in. Unfortunately for Ian, the other six parts of his bet *did* come in, but Josies Orders only managed to finish second in its race. It wasn't all bad news for Ian - he still pocketed £500 for the bet, but he'd come so, so close to a truly life-changing amount of money. Five months, and Josies Orders has now been retrospectively been named as the race's winner after tests found a banned substance in the urine of the horse that crossed the line in first place, Any Currency. However, despite the new result, Ian has been told that bookies are refusing to payout on the bet, sticking to their policy of settling bets on the day. Quoted in The Mirror, Ian, who made his bet with SkyBet, explained his disappointment. "Obviously I'm gutted. Sky Bet are just standing by the 'all bets are settled on the day' line. "£1 each way was my stake. "There's different answers to how much I would have won. "The bet came in at 658,125/1 but some people are saying I should have got near a million in return. "But honestly I have no idea. Hence why I'm sticking to the £700,000." "When it was announced back in June that Any Currency had failed the drug test I thought I would get the money but almost instantly Sky Bet were saying on Twitter that they wouldn't be paying out. "Then, yesterday, when it was finally announced that Any Currency had been disqualified I didn't get my hopes up about getting money. I kind of already knew what Sky Bet were going to say." Traces of Triamcinolone Acetonide (TCA) - a prohibited substance - were found in the horse's urine following the race. Although there is nothing wrong with using the substance to treat horses, it must clear their system by the day of a race. Clearly, this wasn't the case. Just imagine how utterly devastated you'd be... Read more...